White Stag, is an astounding piece of work. Carefully traipsing the time between conventional beauty versus the image of monstrosity, and encapsulating a young (physically) womens internal challenge of identity and revenge, Barbieri creates an increasingly interesting world, that leaves you wanting more.

With a non-predictable premise, and a final chapter that leaves you on the metaphorical precipice, this novel is at the very too of my recommendations.

Read this novel, not for the high-fantasy, but for the well-crafted, and eloquent construction of a new world, and the ‘coming-of-age’ of a strong, female, lead.

This story is what I call Young Adult Fantasy Romance. A young girl, Janneke, is kidnapped by a goblin after her village is destroyed by the goblin tribe. The first goblin tortures and sexually abuses Janneke, then gifts her to his nephew Soren. Janneke is bound to Soren for a hundred years. She learns cunning and skills to survive and thrive in the goblin kingdom. The story begins as the hundred years are coming to an end and Janneke faces the fact that she cannot return to her human world, but she is also not accepted by the goblins.. Soren takes Janneke on his quest to find the White Stag which will give him power to rule the goblin kingdom. The story is well written, but I did not like the romantic aspect of the story-line, and the constant internal debate that Janneke goes through deciding her future. There is also a lot of mystical-type writing that you have to decipher. This is a beautiful, dreamy book with mature themes, but not my favorite genre.

I found this story very intriguing. I felt there were bits that were really interesting and I loved the Norse myth references that were littered throughout. I also really enjoyed the banter between Janneke and Seppo, those were probably my favorite parts of the whole story, but I felt there was something missing. I think it was possibly because I felt like Soren as a character was a tad underdeveloped. At the start of the story, Janneke has been in the goblin world for almost a century, so I wish we could've gotten a bit more backstory into Soren's life and time with Janneke during that period, especially to make the relationship aspect more believable.

I would've also loved to delve more into the realm of Permafrost because you can tell just by the little glimpses that there's a wealth of other creatures besides the goblins that inhabit this brutal land, and I think it'd be super interesting to touch upon them. There were interesting dynamics woven throughout, such as the question what exactly makes a monster? As well as the struggle Janneke goes through as she feels herself changing into a goblin, yet desperately tries to cling to her humanity. Despite this being a fast-paced, action-packed fantasy, and having all the makings of a story I would absolutely love, nothing really resonated with me and I felt it was just okay.

This book was super duper amazing! I was hooked from the very first page (finished it in a day if that tells you anything). Great writing, strong heroine, and GOBLINS! Need I say more? Can't wait for the next book! I highly recommend this one!!

Wow, this was very interesting.Not quite what I was expecting, but it kept me entertained. Please do be aware that there is Trigger Warnings for : Tourture, rape and ptsd

White Stag felt unique. It felt completely different from any book I've read, and I absolutely loved it! From the first page, to the last, I was mesmerized. Sucked in to the Permafrost world and didn't want to leave. This book is a definite page turner and a must read for any fan of fantasy and sci-fi. I will be impatiently waiting for the next installment to come out.

I really enjoyed this. Yes sometimes the writing is a bit stilted and yes some of the subject matter veers on problematic. It does hit my personal bugbear of sexual assault as a backstory without enough care and thought as to how that affects the MC. This is often lay writing but I think here it's the sign of an inexperienced writer. The story was fun and engaging, told with real relish and I was willing to forgive much. I've seen people complaining about the goblins being good looking. I think this just displays their intense ignorance of how folklore varies from place to place. English goblins - from which much goblin mythos is taken - are traditionally ugly. Some of this is don to Rosetti's poem The Goblin Market where the goblins personify the male sexual appetite and they are described as hideous and brutish. Original goblin mythology comes from the Norse/ Germanic stories of the Dokkalfar (dark elves) and the Erlkonig (Elf King) who were held to be uncannily beautiful. (So before you through a hissy fit about how an author portrays something, do some fact checking! Incidently Trolls weren't always ugly either - look into the Huldre of Norwegian myth.) Anyway this was an enjoyable read even if it didn't hold a lot of surprises for the seasoned fantasy reader. My feeling it that the author has yet to hit her stride as a writer but that she'll be one to watch when she does.

"We're all monsters in some way. But the only ones who are dangerous are the ones who don't realize it."


As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the malicious goblin Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren.

When the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. After dangerous truths are revealed, Janneke must choose between holding on or letting go of her last connections to a world she no longer belongs to.

That beautiful cover, mythological references (especially of the otherworldly white stag), and an enslaved human that becomes more monster than human? I smell potential!

Unfortunately, that's about all I got. DNF @ 60%.

From what I can tell, Kara Barbieri is a new author and it shows. The premise of the book is interesting but it could do with some additional work to cut the extras and add a little depth to the world. To try and give you an idea, let's go through what I liked and didn't:

PROS:
- The overall concept was intriguing.
- The pacing was good and there was enough action to keep it going.
- It brought up the question of what makes a monster and doesn't exempt humans from this label.
- Soren, Rekke, and Seppo are all good goblins though two out of the three are attributed to human attributes (which almost ruined it for me because being human-like shouldn't be the reason they're good).
- Lindworms (aka dragons) because DRAGONS. Who doesn't like dragons?
- Seppo is ADORABLE. I love Seppo. I need me more Seppo.
- The song from Janekke's heart was actually pretty cool. Once she got around to it.
- SEPPO. Why doesn't she choose Seppo? Why isn't Seppo a thing?

CONS:
- No understanding of how the white stag is a physical symbol of the king's power. What makes it so? What keeps it by the king's side until a new one is needed?
- Despite Janneke being enslaved for a century, and knowing better than to get into fights at important gatherings, she gets into one within the first chapter (while Soren, her owner, is re-swearing his allegiance to the king no less). You expect me to believe she's survived a century of servitude if she does this?
- Janneke's rape and internal conflicts are repeatedly brought up as a way to explain how bad goblins really are or to elicit sympathy. Whenever Janneke is upset about something it gets brought up again...and let me tell you she is upset a lot. Instead of making me feel for this character, I got fed up and started wishing something would eat her already. (This is similar to how I felt about Ash Princess for the exact same reasons.)
- I felt you could substitute "fae" for "goblin" and it would be more accurate; granted, I'm not all brushed up on my goblin lore but I didn't realize that they were inhumanly beautiful until they went aggro? This just struck me weird.
- If all the goblins can see the "prey trail" of where the white stag went...wouldn't that mean that the first goblin to reach the stag wins? Not the most powerful?
- There was some weird mystical stuff (mostly for foreshadowing but also for choosing her "future over her past") that felt out of place and could have been nixed completely without altering the story.
- To save Soren, Janekke got pissed about singing a song for the venom antidote? I'm sorry, what? I get that you've been wallowing in self-pity for a century but you couldn't even sing happy birthday or twinkle, twinkle little star? PUH-LEASE.

Despite how incredibly negative I appear, I think the author is decent overall. She knows her way around a story and the pacing was good. She just needs a rockstar editor to help her grow...to cut the repetitive angst and add a bit more meat to the history when necessary. I hope she finds her stride in the second installment but I won't be along for the ride.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put down!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

The author, Kara Barbieri, is a complete unknown to me. Looking at Barbieri's Goodreads page I believe this may be the first book she has had published. She has very good writing skills. Was able to create a beautiful world with contrasting elements.

White Stag follows Janneke, a human woman living in a world of Goblins and other mystical beings. Barbieri has created a new world using known creatures but has given them all new life. Forget the Goblins you know from Tolkien. These Goblins are equally evil but they look beautiful until they are angry.

Our main character, Janneke had been taken from her human village during a Goblin raid over 100 years ago. Goblins enslave humans to complete domestic tasks they have no skill set for such as sewing, cooking, cleaning, etc. The last child born to a family of all girls, Janneke has no domestic skills as her father was raising her to be his next male heir. She was taught how to hunt, track, and fight. Janneke is bound to the Goblin realm through magic; this same magic allows her to remain ageless. Her original capturer, Lydian, has gifted her to his nephew, Soren, after Janneke attacked Lydian with an iron nail. Iron is poisonous to Goblins within Barbieri's world. Unknown to Janneke, Soren has a life long connection to the young woman and willing takes her in, treating her with respect and kindness.

The story actually begins with he death of the current Goblin King which in turn ignites a hunt for the next king. Lydian and Soren appear to the be the most powerful of all the goblins and lead the charge to become the next King. The longer Janneke remains in the Goblin realm the more she transforms in to one of the monsters she despises. She has spent 100 years waiting for the perfect opportunity to escape back to the Human world she came from, will the Hunt allow for that opportunity or will Janneke except her transformation and understand that evil only resides where it has been fostered?

The first 10% of the story I was lost. I didn't understand the politics within the Goblin realm and explanations seemed to come much later. With that said once I understood who was who and what was what I really began to like the main characters. Janneke is a strong woman who has visible and mental scars from wounds inflicted by Lydian. Soren is not your typical evil Goblin. By nature Soren is born to fight and kill but he is good and desires to not be viewed as a monster. I think Barbieri is trying to impart the message that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover or that you can't judge a whole race/species by the actions of one person. It's a noble message not usually so prevalent in a fantasy book.

Full disclosure, there is a lot of violence in this story. I always try to step out of the real world and view fantasy from the perspective of the world within which the story has been built. I understood that within the Goblin world violence was the norm. Lydian had tortured and raped Janneke. The sexual assault element, when originally mentioned was brushed over. I had to read the paragraph it was first mentioned in three times to really understand that she was truly sexually assaulted When it is fully addressed later it appears to be a topic that Janneke has moved on from. Again, I tried to tell myself that technically in the storyline 100 years has passed. She has had time to deal with the trauma but it was still a tough sell. Janneke sort of disregards the issue of being raped when Soren attempts to address it with her. I am not saying that the topic needed to be the focus of the storyline but a little bit of depth may have aided with the subject matter.

For the rest of the storyline, once I got past all of the story building I really enjoyed the adventures of the Hunt. Things within the story seemed to progress quickly until I got about 80% into the book. I think there was too much, too many adventures, too many creatures to battle. Looking back I understand they were necessary to bring Janneke to the realization that she needed to be at for the story to conclude but I struggled with the last 20% of the book.

There is a second installment of the series. At this point I am uncertain if I will read the next book. I felt that the White Stag was fine ending the way it did. As it is it could be taken as a stand alone.

Grammer -
There are some serious grammatical errors. A book this length I can complete in one sitting but I found myself re-reading a great majority of the sentences to understand what was being said.

Plot
I like the world building. I struggled with the violence and the rape. I really enjoyed the concept of the Hunt, a battle to become the next King of the realm, with the strongest surviving to rule. I wonder if the moral of the story may end up lost on some readers.

Believability -
At some point in the story the author mentioned a creation story. When you truly develop a whole new world it aids in the believability factor. We are wiping the slate clean and starting from scratch. I had no issues with believability.

Cover -
The cover is pretty but not appealing. It doesn't really draw me in.

Ending -
I really did not like the ending of the story. I felt confused and unsatisfied.

Overall -
I think the book was a decent read. I think the story has some good elements and some bad. I loved the strength of Janneke. I loved the backhanded arrogance of Soren as well as his attempts to be more human like. I aways say everyone takes away different things when they read a book. I think there will be a lot of people who will struggle with the "brushing over" of the sexual assault.

I loved this book! A good paced plot line about a teenage girl taken into the realm of goblins after her family died. Required to serve a goblin lord for 100 years, the story starts at the end of her century of servitude and chronicles her destiny. Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Holly Black, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones.

A compelling new story that takes the nuance of Cruel prince and the lore of Goblin King. Fans of strong characters and women who can take on the world will love this read.
Soren and Janneka make the perfect pair to take on the world. Their companionship and fight through the book is commendable. This permafrost world is so well developed that it takes a bit of time to understand the plot. The characters had their own fears and you developed warmth for the odd man out.

*Warning of slight trigger warning for rape is advised. There is no full discussion but alluded to and the scars it leaves behind are in the plot multiple times.

I was given the chance to read this book early thanks to netgalley! This book will draw you in from the very first page! The story follows a human girl named Janneke who lives in a world not meant for humans. The trials that Janneke faces throughout the book will make the reader look deeper then the story. Janneke struggling to accept herself is something I think all readers can relate with at somepoint and on some level. Kara Barbieri does a wonderful job at describing the world and bringing it to life. She created such complex characters that readers can both love, hate, and just not know what to feel for them at times. Every time I finished a page I wanted to turn to the next to see what would happen. I enjoyed reading this very much.

I found this to be a very interesting read. It was a quick one for me, but that’s not a bad thing. Part of it was because it kept me engaged and I didn’t want to stop reading.
I will say, there were some grammatical issues and typos that bothered me a little bit, but not enough to take away from the story. My only other issue with the book is that I wish the world was fleshed out just a little bit more, but, being a first book in a series, I can understand the authors not wanting to spend most of the book just telling us all of that and using the next books in the series to show us more.
I thought the story itself was an interesting one and while I guessed a bit of the ending early on, it was still well done. I will definitely read the second book, as I am curious as to where the author will take the story.

Really quick read for me! Can't say I was super happy with how it went though.

The general premise of White Stag is pretty cool-a girl living in a goblin world becomes more than human over the course of a hunt. Unfortunately, I was just so confused by this world that it was hard to really understand or be on the same wavelength as all that happened in the book.

At the start of the book, the author dives right into the turning point for the plot, the one that sets everything after in the course that it does. With me being me, it grew exceedingly difficult to keep up.

As much as I fully support the show-not-tell aspect of world building, Barbieri doesn't even really do much showing, and I constantly felt as if I'd missed something early on in the book because of how confused I was regarding how exactly the goblin society worked.

The characters fell a little flat to me, like they weren't much beyond their purpose in the story: the protagonists, the villains, the ones that fell in between. I don't knoww; I suppose none of them particularly resonated with me.

White Stag, for me, was simply okay I guess, though I do appreciate the ties it has to the old German poem Der Erlkönig.

My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC opportunity!

Wow, I am stunned, What an incredible story. With multilayered characters, colorful worldbuilding, and an explosive plot, this title is guaranteed to become a bestseller. I admire the young author.

White stag by author Kara Barbieri was a decent read. I requested a copy more so for my niece who is 16. I think this book would be best matched with her age group. Overall, it was a good book.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of white stag in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one. I, sadly, appreciated the story more after reading review comments stating the author had gone through some trauma and used this as a way to work through it. I could definitely see what she was doing with this book.

Pros:
Lots of action. No slow bits that made you sleepy.
Janneke was human! As in she made mistakes, owned up to them and worked through them. I enjoyed that she struggled, needed help and learned how to accept help. There weren't really any magic wands to whisk away the problems.
Soren was not perfect either but somehow still likable. I wasn't expecting to like the goblins so that was fun.
I would love to know more about this world.

Cons:
Needs more world and character building.
Some of the rape references were a little more graphic than I'd like in YA but I get what she was trying to convey. It's something that doesn't ever really leave you. Memories pop up at random and they aren't censored.

Still torn on the ending. I was totally rooting for Janneke to kill the white stag. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out in the next book.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the arc of this book.
What an absolutely fantastic gripping story, action packed from the get go, I loved it, Soren and Janneka are the strong lead characters, Seppa and the wolves lighten it up, such a well written story, I look forward to the second in the series!

Seventeen year old Janneka always felt different from the other women in her small fishing village. Born as the last child in a family of all girls, she was raised as a male heir. She was taught to track, fish, and hunt in order to provide for her family. She was renamed Janneke the masculine form of her name unable to acknowledge her womanhood. When Lydian, a powerful and volatile goblin, slaughtered and burned her village, Janneke was taken, tortured, and abused. Janneke was near death when Lydian gifted her to his nephew Soren where she was healed and has remained his thrall for the last hundred years. When the Goblin King dies, his loss of power frees the white stage, initiating a hunt that will determine the new ruler. Soren, in an attempt to save Janneke, orders her to accompany him on the hunt; a journey where she will be forced to make decisions that bring her closer to Soren and turn her more monster than human.

White Stage is the thrilling first book in the Permafrost series. This is an action packed novel rich in Norse mythology. Janneke a strong female protagonist, who despite being human in a world of monsters, is a force to be reckoned with. The novel does contain some violent content associated with battle, and flashbacks of rape and torture. I absolutely loved the mythology, and many of the characters and settings in the story were fascinating. This novel had been on my watch list for a while and it was even better than I had imagined. I am very excited to complete this series and see how the events that are initiated in this arc unfold in the second novel. If you love action packed fantasy plots filled with creatures from Norse mythology, then put this at the top of your read list...a must read for 2019